Clue #1: Senator White DEFINITELY Did It

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Inspector Steve Morris, and I am currently smoking an elegant cigar in a most dashing way, stroking away the smoke from my gloriously ornate moustache. I have gathered you all here to discuss the first issue of a most entertaining comics license from the creative team of Paul Allor, Nelson Daniel, and Neil Uyetake. Under the keen and suspicious gaze of that confounding editor Carlos Guzman this team have constructed a tense and terse mystery, which unfolds during the course of one dark and stormy night.

As our narrator Upton the Butler tells us, all the signs are ominous, not least his own omnipotence in the role. He is in charge of a large mansion, in which several guests are assembled for an opulent dinner – one in which the main course is death.

Partaking in this most unwanted cuisine is Mr A. Boddy, owner of the house and acknowledged cipher, whose offing sparks off a succession of questions – all of which I shall be dutifully answering at some point in the next few weeks. First, however, in the true Christie style I must offer an overextended period of exposition as I greet each of the main characters and convey something about them to you, the reader, so that you can shape your own opinions as to their motivations, ambitions, and curiosity in candlestick-related murdering.

The Australian rap artist Miss Scarlet has a knack for delivering a rhyme that keeps the white boys keen, but do her leaden verses clunk more than being hit round the back of the head with a pipe?

Mr Green is a pharmaceutical bro who raised the price of medication simply because he could. Would anyone complain if somebody were to throw a wrench in the works… or his face?

Dr Orchid specialises in toxins and has carries cures for the most dangerous contagions in her hands. But does she also carry… y’know… a gun?

Professor Plum may seem a step behind when it comes to making conversation, but this polymath’s brain is always ahead of the rest. Your mind is a gun, as Robbie Williams once sang in a song nobody but me listens to nowadays.

Try to start a conversation with the sullen Colonel Mustard and he’s guaranteed to leave you hanging. Perhaps using a rope, uh, around your neck?

Mrs Peacock’s husband died in mysterious circumstances, leading everyone to wonder if she stabbed him in the back – or literally, which’d probably murder him.

Senator White is a dangerous woman, which is probably a good thing because I’ve run out of traditional Cluedo weapons to weakly tie people to.

Okay so those were very hard to just make up spur of the moment, and also there are two police officers who arrive on the scene after the first murder and might also be involved. Let me put on my smoking jacket and we’ll carry on.

Once the Boddy hits the floor, every guest makes their accusation for who they think did the crime. Early on it is suggested that Mrs Peacock, given her history of suspicious murders, is probably the culprit here, and she runs off. Given this response you may think that this indicates she is the murderer, and we have a very simple one-issue story in play here. However, the first suspect is never the true murderer, and sure enough the end of the issue reveals that she was not the murderer.

Why have I placed my hefty and indisputable finger of suspicion upon the Senator? Let’s take a look at the evidence. When she first arrives she is greeted personally by Upton, and brought into the house by guided umbrella. She asks if there’s a chance they may get trapped at the location if the nearby river swells its banks, clearly indicating her worry that she will not be able to make a clear getaway after wrenching up Mr Boddy something fierce.

Upton even goes so far as to say that she has an agenda as she walks into the house, and that agenda was absolutely to do a murder. The founder of a maid service company said to be the biggest in the country, she not only has the resources – but the access – required to get in and out of the house where necessary, assuming that Mr Boddy has maids somewhere. There isn’t, um, any evidence for this so far.

At dinner, we find that Senator White has met Colonel Mustard before, and that she used footage of his “fact-finding” following a campaign in Afghanistan for her campaign. She also knew Mrs Peacock’s husband, providing her with early access to the first suspect in the killing. We find that she is a most capable woman, and one who is able to sift the facts from the fiction – primarily so she can publish the fiction.

When the body is found, her first reaction is to protect herself and declare herself “above suspicion”, which is obviously the most suspicious thing she could’ve done at that point.

Later, she reveals that she also knows Mr Green, and is helping him push through some dodgy legislation. That makes three members of the group she knows, not including Mr Boddy himself, making her the most well-connected person in this series of events. Connections, of course, being what the essential tools of the modern murderer.

Based on all the information cited above, I hereby submit that Senator White is the murderer! And now to sit back and start reading issue #2….

Clue #1
Written by Paul Allor
Drawn by Nelson Daniel
Lettered by Neil Uyetake
Published by IDW